TROY, Mich.  A judge who sentenced three teenagers to probation for being drunk at their high school prom had them jailed after he saw them drinking and ridiculing him on a Web site one of them created.

"I told them, 'If you think this gives me any pleasure, you're wrong,'" Oakland County District Judge Michael Martone said after sentencing the last of the girls, Amanda Senopole, to 10 days in jail last week.

"You know, it's just a crying shame," Martone said. "I work my butt off trying to help kids like this, trying to figure out what works. And then they do things like this."

Senopole and eight other Troy Athens High School students were caught drinking at their prom last May. They were arraigned before Martone on misdemeanor charges of being a minor in possession of alcohol.

Martone, who had appeared at Athens High days before the prom to warn graduating seniors against drinking, sentenced the students to probation, fines, court costs, community service and alcohol-education classes. As a condition of their probation, he ordered them not to drink and to avoid places where alcohol is served or consumed.

Several months later, Martone was looking on the Internet for a news release on one of the many alcohol-prevention programs he has promoted during his 13 years on the bench. He entered his own name into a search engine and came to a site belonging to Mary Meerschaert, one of the Athens students he had sentenced.

His computer screen showed Meerschaert, Senopole and some of the other students who had appeared before him in court  making obscene gestures, chugging shots of Jagermeister liqueur, posing with beer cans stacked nearly to the ceiling and vomiting into toilets.

The Web site's headline included an abbreviated obscenity directed toward the judge.

Meerschaert, by now enrolled at Michigan State University, had used a digital camera to create an Internet photo gallery with students appearing passed out and couples playing a drinking game among its more than 400 images. Many of the picture captions were profane and directed at Martone.

The gallery also showed Senopole, Meerschaert's roommate, and another co-defendant in the prom incident, Rachel Stesney  enrolled at the University of Detroit Mercy  drinking at parties at Michigan State.

"They made a mockery of the legal system," Martone told the Detroit Free Press for a story published on Jan. 27. "I had to do something."

The judge showed the Web site to police and probation officers. It became legal evidence for charging the three women with contempt of court "for disobeying my direct order not to consume alcohol," Martone said.

Meerschaert and Stesney appeared before Martone on Dec. 23. Meerschaert admitted that her Web site did use profanity aimed at Martone, and that she had a drinking problem.

He sentenced her to 30 days in the Oakland County Jail, then sentenced Stesney to 15 days. They shared a cell during Christmas and New Year's Day.

Senopole appeared before Martone last week, telling him: "I have a new roommate now. She doesn't drink." She also said she earned a 3.6 grade-point average in the fall at Michigan State, and pledged she would introduce an alcohol-education program in her dormitory.

Martone doubled Senopole's hours of community service, to 100, but gave her less jail time than Meerschaert and Stesney  10 days  and let her serve them one at a time, on weekends, "so it doesn't interrupt your studies."

Of the nine students who drank before the prom, two others also have served jail time for later alcohol infractions.

Cheryl Stesney would not let her daughter comment. Martone, she said, "let his anger get out of control. He was just so hurt and embarrassed by that Web site."

Meerschaert's mother, Polly, agreed. "I do feel this is all about vengeance. I won't say my daughter didn't make a mistake. But the minute it became personal, the judge should've removed himself," she said.

"Judge Martone's a fair man," Senopole's father, Tom, said outside the courtroom last week. "She was just in the wrong crowd, wrong time, wrong place."

Cheryl Stesney would not let her daughter comment. Martone, she said, "let his anger get out of control. He was just so hurt and embarrassed by that Web site." Doesn't get it.

Meerschaert's mother, Polly, agreed. "I do feel this is all about vengeance. I won't say my daughter didn't make a mistake. But the minute it became personal, the judge should've removed himself," she said. Doesn't get it and is in denial.

"Judge Martone's a fair man," Senopole's father, Tom, said outside the courtroom last week. "She was just in the wrong crowd, wrong time, wrong place." Gets it. His daughter may have a chance to turn her life around.

Cool, I saw this item on FNC over the weekend, was hoping it would pop up here.

And recusal is absurd, as others have pointed out. If a defendant cusses out a judge in open court, and the judge sentences the defendant to 30 days for contempt, do you think that is inappropriate as well?

Well, until you've gotten a call from the emergency room, stating that they think they have your daughter, don't get too much over his case about this. Drinking is a serious problem these days. When the ER called us, and I'm an RN, we went through every possible stage of emotion before the episode was over. We came within about 1 degree of losing our only daughter due to the fact that she cannot refuse a dare. She tried drinking a beer, then nearly drank a whole 5th of vodka on top. She passed out, and was unable to get off the floor as the "friends" all deserted her. If a friend of the family, a young airman, had not recognized her as he was passing by the bar in a taxi (in a saloon-like place in Incirlik, Turkey) we'd have lost her. There are many kids who die from toxicity from their first drinking binge because of dares, fraternity/sorority parties, etc. I would appreciate a judge taking the time to redress the situation in this case. Obviously the kids didn't get it the first time.

think they got really strong grounds to appeal this decision. Nope. Even if the judge were in the wrong on this case, the idiot girls violated a court order and conditions of probation. No appeal possible from that.

IMHO, it's the idiot mothers who should go to jail. It seems to me that they are the ones who have enabled their girls to be drunken idiots who despise authority""

Another group who has adopted the "Bill Clinton" syndrome. Do as you please and have absolutely no consequences. Someday the whole society will stand up and recognize the painful truth of what a rotten influence the Clintons have been on America and the world.

Are you an idiot? - nothing personal just stating the obvious. I suppose the world needs idiots for some reason. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here you where probably just being alittle sarcy right? - but just in case your serious:

Wisdom is the execution of intelligence and judgment - who would be the wiser here? The parent who stood by the court or the "Wanna - be" teenage parent?

And recusal is absurd, as others have pointed out. If a defendant cusses out a judge in open court, and the judge sentences the defendant to 30 days for contempt, do you think that is inappropriate as well?

I scrolled down to make sure this point was made before I posted. Thanks.

Not at all...the condition of the probation was that they NOT DRINK. If the web site had only been obscene messages to the judge, nothing could/would have been done. BUT they were stupid (again) and displayed evidence for all to see that they had disobeyed the conditions for probation by drinking! They deserved to have their probation revoked.

These pathetic ding-bat mothers should be eternally grateful that this judge may have saved their daughters from an early grave. I'm sure they didn't walk to these binges and were driving drunk. They were sitting ducks for rape or other violence when they were drunk. Shame on parents who don't control their children and then criticize the justice system that finally has to do it for them.

There are many kids who die from toxicity from their first drinking binge because of dares, fraternity/sorority parties, etc.

These are the sorts of things that happen in a nanny state where 18 year olds adults can vote, drive motor vehicles, own a firearms, and risk their lives for us as soldiers, police officers, and firefighters, but can't walk into a bar and legally buy a drink. If you want people to act like adults, then start treating them like adults. Sure, young adults also got drunk when the drinking age was 18, but more likely, they were drinking in situations where they could observe the behavior of more responsible adults and where there were older, more experienced drinkers to keep things under control. But when the law forces adults to drink illegally behind closed doors, the situation is ripe for abuse.

She is an idiot. There's no doubt about that. I'm not going to waste time worrying about her "rights". I was just wondering how a picture --- though worth a thousand words --- can also be worth a sip or a sniff.

She volunteered evidence. I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that she was going to some lengths to convince people that she was violating her probation. The judge simply took them as she intended them to be taken. She could have still denied they were real, and probably gotten off with contempt, but she didn't deny it.

37
posted on 01/31/2006 4:47:54 AM PST
by SlowBoat407
(The best stuff happens just before the thread snaps.)

"These are the sorts of things that happen in a nanny state where 18 year olds adults can vote, drive motor vehicles, own a firearms, and risk their lives for us as soldiers, police officers, and firefighters, but can't walk into a bar and legally buy a drink."

Well said. I feel it is somewhat hypocritical telling young people we'll treat them like adults when they act like adults... and then deny them adult privelages. I don't mean to infer that it's "adult like" or mature to drink, but I don't believe it's right to be selective.

If we can draft and send an 18 year old to war... to possibly die in defense of our Nation, and kill with our permission, then that person should be allowed to have a beer.

In days gone by, you have a point. But you forget that today's kids were never taught responsibility...

That's because we don't allow them to exercise responsibility. The 21 year old drinking age is a perfect example. Adults today also have a nasty habit of micromanaging every second of their childrens' time rather than allowing them to supervise their own games, make their own rules, and solve their own disputes. I can recall playing pick-up baseball in the cow fields as a kid. We didn't have adults to select the teams or call balls and stikes. We came up with our own rules and solved our own problems. For example, if someone hit the ball too close to a cow to field cleanly, that was a ground rule double. If someone actually hit a cow with the ball on the fly, that was a home run.

I agree why wasnt he forced to recuse himself? I think they got really strong grounds to appeal this decision.

That logic would make contempt of court charges impossible. The perp could just call the judge a nasty name in court everytime they want another judge, and the judge can't charge him "because it would be personal". These idiotic girls are getting a badly needed wake up call to the real world. These "parents" obviously aren't taking their children's development very seriously.

"I blew a .02," she said -- the minimum needed for a violation under Michigan's zero-tolerance rule for minors. She said one officer offered her a break.

"He said, 'I'll give you another test later so that you can be under .02.' But our principal said no, 'It's school policy. We have to call your parents.' "

...

Martone, 58, has devoted his career to battling under-age drinking... Other judges have praised and emulated his crusade, especially his dramatic school assemblies in which Martone holds actual court sessions, marching guilty adult defendants off in handcuffs to the gasps of students.

She'd written a letter, asking for leniency. She handed it to the judge. "It was sad," he recalled. "In it, she said she wants to be a criminal justice major. I told her, perhaps you might want to consider another line of work."

...

He sentenced her to 30 days in the Oakland County Jail. She was marched off in handcuffs, to spend Christmas and New Year's Day behind bars.

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